To feed or not?

ILGM bubble gum, OGK and Jack Herer autos.
day 26
grown in FF Happy Frog and Roots Organic soil

im about to water my plants and i was just wondering if it would be safe to start feeding my plants?
i have the FF trio and Some Cal-Mag plus.
any pointers would be great!

I grow in Happy Frog and never add nutes until the 5th week from my last transplant.

Your plants look healthy. Do you have a PPM meter? I wouldn’t fertilize until you understand your PPMs.

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i have a ppm meter. can you help me understand the ppm deal? like what should i have my soil at right now and how do i check

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Here is a generalized ppm guide for different plant stages (some will require more, some less):

  • Seedlings: 100-250 (nutrients aren’t needed here, hence there’s not a lot of particles needed)
  • First Half of Vegging Cycle: 300-400 (this is usually after you transplant, which still doesn’t require many nutrients)
  • Second Half of Vegging: 450-700 (you’ll start giving your plants more nutrients at this stage)
  • First Half of Flowering: 750-950 (your plants will be eating more as they grow, so they’ll be taking in more nutrients)
  • Second Half of Flowering: 1000-1600 (this is when your plant’s eating the most, especially if you give it additives)
  • End of Flower, Entering Harvest: As close to 0 as possible (this is when you’ll be flushing your plants, so you don’t want there to be a lot of particles leftover)

When reading runoff to determine what the plant is consuming, you want the runoff to be close to what you put in.

Example: you test your nutrient solution before giving it to the plant. Ppm reads 1200. You water the plant until you get around 10-20% of the water coming out of the pot. Test that solution. If you’re near 1200ppm, you’re at a good level of ppm for the plant. If you’re getting 1700ppm reading in the runoff, you can back off on the amount of nutrients because the plant isn’t able to consume everything you’re giving it. On the other hand, if you’re getting 800ppm in the runoff, you can bump up the amount of nutrients on the next feed because she’s not getting enough.

Being off 100 or 200 PPM isn’t usually a big deal. It is far better to underfeed than it is to overfeed. Your plants will tell you when there is a problem and we can help you with that. An underfeeding situation can be resolved for the plant very easily and very quickly. It is not really the case with overfeeding, which will take more effort and more time to correct.

As you are in Happy Frog, you won’t need to fertilize at all until at least 4 weeks from your last transplant, regardless of what the feed schedules say. Your PPMs will be high enough for that period just based on what is in the bagged soil.

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Thank you!
If you think of anything else please lmk =]


hey any idea whats going on with these plants?

Bottom one looks good. Top one looks like it is pouting from too much water. Let her dry out and she’ll perk right back up.

They look really healthy. Did you get a PPM reading?

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i did theyre right around 900 thanks

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i added a little cal mag to their water yesterday. i was worried i had messed the ph up because i dropped my ph pen in the bucket of water a few days prior and was waiting on a replacement in the mail. so i was using the color drops… good to know its just over watering thank you.
is there such thing as over crowding plants? or if they get enough air flow it doesnt matter how many you have in one space?

Yes, you can overcrowd. A good rule of thumb for space is to ensure that they can get plenty of airflow and to ensure that you can get the maximum light penetration through each plant.

It’s a really good idea to keep fresh air moving across them, especially in flowering when they are susceptible to white powdery mildew. I keep a fan pushing air up through the canopy of every plant I have.

How much space each plant needs depends on your growing methods. I train my plants extensively and they are very compact. I plan on 2.5ft x 2.5ft for each plant. Others grow monsters and can fill a 4x4 with one plant. I never have plants with overlapping vegetation.

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yeah see i didnt do alot of research and now ive burnt some money on this whole project i think im going to have to cut my losses with a few plants. i have 8 autos and 2 photos growing and the photos are getting big lmao i dont have room for all of them…but ILGM has had a 100% germination with me i love the product and im coming for the black berry kush next.

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Above is how the plants were looking yesterday turns out they were getting hungry lol
heres them this morning.(below)

im really starting to love growing lol Thank you so much ILGM for having this forum here its is such a nice tool to have.

I had the same question, and just ordered an Apera meter since this PPM thing appears to be important

@MidwestGuy
Great, learning new things every day. Questions, how do you test solution on the runoff? I presume you are somehow lifting the plant up? With a 3-4 Gal. pot not an issue, but with 10+Gals. it becomes an issue? And what if planted on the ground? Also, I see you started with a 1200 on the nutrients, is this number derived from a particular scale from whatever nutrient you might be using? Or is it just an arbitrary number?
Thanks

I don’t let them get to 1200 unless in flowering. I have big saucers to catch runoff and just pull the water from it to test pH and PPM.

If I were going to test an outdoor grow, then I’d get a soil sample from near the root ball and do a slurry test.

Here’s a generalized PPM guide:

  • Seedlings: 100-250 (nutrients aren’t needed here, hence there’s not a lot of particles needed)
  • First Half of Vegging Cycle: 300-400 (this is usually after you transplant, which still doesn’t require many nutrients)
  • Second Half of Vegging: 450-700 (you’ll start giving your plants more nutrients at this stage)
  • First Half of Flowering: 750-950 (your plants will be eating more as they grow, so they’ll be taking in more nutrients)
  • Second Half of Flowering: 1000-1600 (this is when your plant’s eating the most, especially if you give it additives)
  • End of Flower, Entering Harvest: As close to 0 as possible (this is when you’ll be flushing your plants, so you don’t want there to be a lot of particles leftover)
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Excellent, than you

amazon sells a ph pen and a ppm meter as a bundle from vivosun. ppms are very important and left unchecked you’ll defiantly start seeing problems with your plants.
set potted plant on a grate ( if its to big to lift, it should probably be left outside) water untill there is runoff wait a few then collect a sample of the runoff and test it with your ppm meter.
if ppms are too high flush with recomended amount of water for whatever size container youre using.
last week i checked the ppms of one of my crazy looking plants it was at 3000ppms. good luck buddy

I already had the PH meter, so the PPM meter is on its way, thanks

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Plants are doing 100 percent better

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Looking really good!

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